Attacked or Hurt on Someone Else's Property? Here's What You Need to Know

Negligent Security in Florida: A Plain-Language Guide for Attack Victims and Families

If you were attacked on someone else’s property, the law may allow you to pursue more than the person who hurt you. This guide explains how that works in Florida, in plain language, and what to do next.

Attacked on Someone Else’s Property? Start Here

You went to your apartment parking lot. A hotel hallway. A gas station at night. You were doing something ordinary, and someone attacked you. You may have been beaten, shot, stabbed, robbed, or sexually assaulted. Now you face a life-changing injury, medical bills you never planned for, and a question no one prepared you to ask: could this have been prevented?

If the property owner failed to keep the place reasonably safe, the answer may be yes. Florida law may hold that owner responsible, not just the person who attacked you.

This page is written for you, the injured person, or for a family member who is carrying this burden. It does not assume you know any legal vocabulary.

You May Have More Options Than You Realize

The person who attacked you is responsible for the crime. But that is not always the whole story.

Consider a security gate that broke months ago and was never repaired. A parking garage left dark because the bulbs were never replaced. An apartment complex where robberies and assaults kept happening, yet management installed no cameras, hired no guards, and warned no residents.

When an owner ignores clear, known dangers and someone is seriously hurt as a result, that owner may share the blame.

The Legal Term for This Situation: Negligent Security

Lawyers call the situation described above a negligent security claim. It is a type of premises liability case, meaning a claim about a dangerous condition on someone’s property.

A negligent security claim does not excuse the attacker. It addresses a separate failure: the owner’s failure to protect people from harm the owner should have anticipated. Both wrongs can be true at the same time.

Depending on the location and its history, those steps can include:

• Working locks, gates, and fences
• Adequate lighting in parking lots, hallways, and stairwells
• Functioning security cameras
• Trained security guards when the risk calls for them

Why the Property Owner Can Matter as Much as the Criminal Case

The attacker and the property owner can both face responsibility, but in two separate systems.

The criminal case is brought by the state. Its goal is to punish the attacker. You are a witness, not the one in control, and it does not pay your medical bills.

A civil negligent security claim is your case. Its goal is to recover money to help you rebuild your life.

There is also a practical reality. An individual attacker rarely has the money to pay for a lifetime of care after a catastrophic injury. A property owner, such as an apartment company, hotel operator, or large retailer, usually carries liability insurance. For a family facing years of medical costs, that difference can determine whether the injured person gets the care they need.

What Usually Has to Be Proven

This is general information, not legal advice about your specific case.

Duty. The owner had a responsibility to keep lawful visitors reasonably safe.

Breach. The owner failed to provide reasonable security, such as broken locks, dead cameras, or no lighting where it was clearly needed.

A working gate or a guard on duty might have stopped it.

How Foreseeability Is Investigated

In our experience, foreseeability is often the center of these cases. Owners frequently say no one could have expected what happened. The property’s own records usually tell a different story.

We look at the history of the address itself, including:

• Police call logs and 911 records tied to the location
• Prior incident reports and reports of earlier crimes on the property
• Complaints from tenants, guests, or staff about locks, lighting, or cameras
• Camera footage and maintenance logs that show what was working and when it was repaired

Public records, including law-enforcement call data for a location, can help show what was known before you were hurt. What the owner knew before the attack is often what decides the case.

Where These Attacks Commonly Happen

You may recognize your own situation below:

• Apartment complexes and residential communities: broken gates, non-working locks, no lighting, no cameras, no response to repeated crime
• Parking lots and parking garages: dark corners, no patrols, no working cameras
• Hotels and motels: poor entry control, unsafe hallways, keys that open the wrong rooms
• Bars, nightclubs, and restaurants: no crowd control, no trained security, over-serving that leads to violence
• Gas stations, convenience stores, and ATMs: known robbery locations left unaddressed
• Retail stores and shopping centers: unsafe entrances or unlit lots

If you were hurt at a place like this, the details of the property matter as much as the details of the attack.

The Injuries This Guide Is About

These claims usually involve violent crimes that cause permanent, life-altering harm, including physical assaults, shootings, stabbings, robberies, and sexual assaults.

Our firm focuses on serious injuries, including the following:

• Spinal cord injuries and paralysis (paraplegia and quadriplegia)
• Traumatic brain injury (TBI)
• Amputation and limb loss
• Severe burns
• Catastrophic back and neck injuries
• Wrongful death

These injuries often cause permanent impairment and lifelong care needs. A spinal cord injury, for example, can cause lasting loss of movement and sensation and can affect breathing, bladder, and bowel function, according to the Mayo Clinic. Doctors grade the severity of spinal cord injuries using the ASIA Impairment Scale. Follow your doctors’ care plan, and let your medical records document your condition as it changes.

Florida Rules That Shape Your Claim

Criminal acts of third parties. Under Fla. Stat. § 768.0701, in an action for damages against the owner, lessor, operator, or manager of commercial or real property, brought by a person lawfully on the property who was injured by the criminal act of a third party, the trier of fact must consider the fault of all persons who contributed to the injury.

Under Fla. Stat. § 768.0701, the trier of fact must consider the fault of all persons who contributed to the injury. Because the fault percentages can change what your family recovers, and because a filing deadline (statute of limitations) applies to these claims, do not wait. Contact a firm promptly so the evidence and the deadline are handled in time.

Multifamily apartment properties. Under Fla. Stat. § 768.0706, the owner or principal operator of a multifamily residential property that substantially implements listed security measures has a presumption against liability for certain third-party crimes. One listed measure is a security camera system at points of entry and exit that records and keeps retrievable video for at least 30 days. The owner bears the burden of demonstrating that it substantially implemented those measures.

Convenience businesses. Under Fla. Stat. § 768.0705, the owner or operator of a convenience business that substantially implements the applicable security measures listed in ss. 812.173 and 812.174 gains a presumption against liability for certain third-party criminal acts on the premises. This matters for many gas stations and convenience stores.

Our firm is based in Florida and serves clients throughout the state, so the location of the attack is central to which rules apply.

Questions People Often Ask

What Compensation May Be Available

Every case is different, and no lawyer can promise a specific result. In general, families may seek:

• Medical bills, past and ongoing
• Future and lifelong care, such as therapy, equipment, home modifications, and in-home nursing
• Lost income and reduced ability to earn a living
• Pain and suffering
• Losses for families in wrongful-death cases

Catastrophic injuries carry high, long-term costs. A spinal cord injury or severe TBI can require care for decades. That is a central reason pursuing the property owner, not just the attacker, can matter so much for your family’s stability.

What to Do If This Happened to You or a Loved One

Your health comes first. Get medical care and follow your doctor’s advice. Then, when you are able:

• Keep all medical records and bills
• Write down what was wrong with the property: broken locks, dark lots, past incidents you know about
• Save photos, videos, and the names and phone numbers of any witnesses
• Note the date, time, and location of the attack, and any police report number
• Act quickly, before evidence disappears and before the filing deadline

Evidence can be overwritten or deleted within days or weeks. Security footage, maintenance logs, and call records are often the first things that go. An attorney can request these records early, and waiting can make them harder to obtain.

About Our Firm

CHG Personal Injury Lawyers is a Florida-based personal injury firm. Our attorneys are licensed in Florida and admitted to The Florida Bar. Igor Hernandez is the responsible lawyer for this page. Our team serves people hurt in attacks, crashes, and other accidents across Florida, including catastrophic and life-altering injuries.

We offer a free, confidential initial consultation with no obligation to continue. The firm charges no attorney’s fees and no case costs unless there is a recovery.

When you are ready, you can request a free case evaluation. There is no pressure, just honest answers about your options.

Learn More

Negligent security is one part of a larger area of catastrophic-injury law. To understand the bigger picture, see our resource on catastrophic back and neck injuries.